First name/s: Edgar
Last name: Eagle
Known names / nicknames:
Date of birth:
Year of birth: 1895
Life before Ruskin
Date and place of birth: 1895 Leicester
Family:
Father – Charles Eagle: Time-keeper at boot and shoe works in Leicester
Mother – Mary Ann Eagle: no employment listed in 1911 census
Brother – Ronald Eagle: Student at Bournville
Work:Clerk at Equity Boot & Shoe works in Leicester
Politics/Trade union activity:
1919 Member of the Management Committee of Leicester Cooperative Society1919 Elected to the Leicester & District Executive Committee of the Workers Educational Association (WEA) having been an active member of classes in that Branch
Trade Union membership (at time of entry to Ruskin)
Life at Ruskin
Dates at Ruskin: 1926
Source of funding:
Campaigns/political activity:
Subjects studied at Ruskin:
Dissertation:
Qualification:
Life after Ruskin
Education:
After Ruskin went on to study part-time at University College, Nottingham achieving a B.Sc. (Econ.)(Lond.) [Nottingham not having been granted its degree charter until 1948].
Work: 1929 appointed Staff Tutor in Economics in the Department of Adult Education, at University College, Nottingham. Edgar Eagle stayed in that department within the University of Nottingham (re-named with charter in 1948) until retirement in 1960. In a similar ethos to that of Ruskin College, the aim at foundation of University College Nottingham was to allow working people to share in the educational opportunities available
Politics/trade union activity:
Family:Widowed after retirement and later remarried
Place & date of death:
26th September 1981 (living in London)
Date of death: 26/09/1981
Year of death: 1981
Achievements / Publications
– The East Midland District of the Workers’ Educational Association: an outline of its origin and growth 1954 Workers’ Educational Association
– The Leicester Mechanics’ Institute: 1834-1870 – a reassessment 1959 in Rewley House papers, Oxford Volume III, No. VII 1958-59 Oxford University Delegacy for Extra-Mural Studies 1959
– The Leicester Mechanics’ Institute: 1834-1870 – a reassessment II 1960 in Rewley House papers, Oxford Vol. III, No. VIII 1959-60 Oxford University Delegacy for Extra-Mural Studies
Material in archives or already published articles
All Edgar Eagle’s publications listed above are held in the Manuscripts and Special Collections at The University of Nottingham. This archive also holds an obituary for Mr. Eagle in the University of Nottingham Gazette for January 1982. He is also mentioned in University College Calendars for the years 1929-30, 1930-31 and 1959-60 with regard to graduation, appointment to the staff and retirement. There may well be photographs in these publications. Archivists say they hold more records for University College Nottingham which has not yet been catalogued and so there may be more information to add to this entry in due course.
Image
Notes on Image/s
Comment of contributor/s and sources
I would like to extend grateful thank to Archivists in the Manuscripts and Special Collections at the University of Nottingham. Until I received their response to my email enquiry, the only information I had on this former student came from a line in a publication produced by Ruskin College (undated but pre-1951?) entitled Ruskin College Oxford – Activities of some Former Students. Under the heading ‘Educational’ are the lines “E. Eagle – B.Sc. (Econ.)(Lond). Staff Tutor, Economics, Department of Adult Education, University College, Nottingham” – there was no first name, gender or date to guide my research.
I came across this publication whilst volunteering in Ruskin Library at Walton Street during my own studies for a History degree. My task was to list all documents in a filing cabinet of materials on the history of Ruskin College. The work was to result in an index to be uploaded to the College website giving access to information for former students, their families or interested parties. Sadly this did not happen and as we now know, prior to the sale of the College’s Walton Street premises and withdrawal to Ruskin Hall in Headington, Oxford, all records of former students prior to the 1950s were destroyed. As a former student myself and of working class origins, it is important to me that such a tiny trace of Edgar Eagle’s time at Ruskin, his achievements and dedication to adult education become part of the New Ruskin Archives so that he is placed back within a student body of which he was a part and which many of us (if not the recently retired Principal) hold in high regard. All the information held and kindly shared by the University of Nottingham, who obviously value their history and student/staff body, makes all the more poignant the destruction of the original Ruskin College archive.
Author/s
Denise Pakeman, former history student at Ruskin College